At 43, Reshevsky, despite his smallness, is an
imposing figure whose icy boardside manner is a weapon
which powerfully complements his wits. Barely 5 feet 2
inches tall, with a wide, bulging brow and steely eyes,
he sits un-movingly erect for hours on end, his head in
his cupped hands, his mouth pursed in an expression of
ineffable hauteur. Most players nibble and sip at
something at intervals during a game; Reshevsky eats
nothing and only seldom drinks a glass of water. He
chain-smokes, but in him even this habit betrays no sign
of nerves. "Sammy," a colleague once observed, "plays
chess like a man eating fish. First he removes the
bones, then he swallows the fish." His self-confidence
is so boundless that in tournament play, where 40 moves
must be made within two and a half hours, he will spend
half that time pondering a single move, feeling sure of
finding one that will make the next moves virtually
automatic. On rare occasions only does he leave himself
so little time that he blunders through sheer
haste.

John Kobler writing
about Sammy Reshevsky in his article
Icy Wizard of the Royal Game which appeared in the
October 17th, 1955, issue of Sports
Illustrated.

1) Mechanics' Institute
Chess Club News

NM
Russell Wong and Expert Todd
Rumph are the only remaining perfect scores
after four rounds of the Winter Tuesday Night
Marathon. International Master Elliott
Winslow, who took a first round half point bye,
is alone in third with 3 1/2 points. Four rounds
remain for the 66 competitors.

The Mechanics'
Chess Club will be holding four chess camps this summer.
The dates are:

It's
Wednesday! Time for the weekly blitz chess tournament
at Mechanics' Institute Chess
Club. As always,
it starts no later
than 6:40pm with sign-up beginning at 6:20pm.
Entry is $10 with clock $11 without
clock. Prizes are 50%, 30%, 20%
of entry fees. TIme control
preferably is 3 minute increment 2 seconds otherwise 5
minutes no increment.

Look
forward to seeing you
tonight.

2)
Nick deFirmian new Mechanics' Institute Grandmaster in
Residence

The Mechanics' Chess Club welcomes
Nick deFirmian as its
Grandmaster-in-Residence.This will be a return home for
the native Californian and UC Berkeley graduate.
Grandmaster deFirmian has a long association with the
Mechanics' dating back to his days as an
undergraduate,and served as a member of
the organizing committee for
the M.I.'s "Pan-Pacific"
International Chess Tournaments in
1987 and
1991.

The past three decades Nick deFirmian has
excelled in many areas of the chess world. A world class
player for many years, Grandmaster deFirmian is a
three-time US Champion and a eight-time member of the US
Olympiad team. He served as the Captain of the US team
at the 2002 Chess Olympiad held in Bled, Slovenia.

The author of several
books on the games, including three
editions of the well-received Modern
Chess
Openings,deFirmian has
also written forsuch leading chess
publications asNew in Chess, Chess
Life and Inside
Chess.

He is well known for his role in
helping prepare openings for the IBM computer
Deep Blue that defeated World Champion Garry Kasparov
in a historic battle in
1997. This was the first time a
computer had beaten a reigning human World Champion in a
match.

The past decade Grandmaster deFirmian has
concentrated his energy on teaching chess to children in
New York City. This teaching included working with
Public School 130 in Chinatown and Horace
Mann, a private school which won the
3rd and 5th grade national
championships. He has also
coached kids in such events as the
World Youth Championships and taught at
summer chess camps throughout the
country.

Grandmaster deFirmian will focus his energy
on the Mechanics' Chess Club's Scholastic Outreach
program. He will also be the lead instructor at an
expanded number of chess camps held at the Mechanics'
and will start a Thursday evening group class for
enthusiastic amateurs players.

3)
Reshevsky-Fischer - Match 1961, Game 11,
Revisited

What
would turn out to be the last game of the
Reshevsky-Fischermatch was one
of the most dramatic. Fischer, playing sharply from the
beginning using his favorite King's Indian, quickly
obtained a highly advantageous position. Reshevsky
defended tenaciously but through excellent play Bobby
increased his advantage until both sides started to
bobble the ball after the adjournment with Fischer
missing some easy wins. The final critical moment was
reached after 52...Ra2+

W-
Kg2, Re3, Bf4, pg3

B-
Kg6, Re7, Ra2, ph6

Note if
you go to www.chessclub.org this Newsletter with
diagrams will be up in the next day or
so.

53.Kf3?

Fischer,
in My 60 Memorable Games, points out "correct
was 53.Kh3! in order to keep Black's king out of g4
after the exchange of rooks: e.g., 53..Rxe3 54.Bxe3 h5
55.Bf4 Ra1 56.Bc7 Kf5 57.Bf4 Rb1 58.Bc7! Rh1+ 59.Kg2 Rc1
60.Bf4!(gaining a vital tempo by hitting the rook),
rook-any; 61.Kh3! maintaining the blockade.

This
looks very convincing and suggests that all Black needs
to do is bring his king to h1 and he wins.

Unfortunately
there is a flaw. Going back to the position reached
after 66... Rf8?.

W- Bf4, Kf3,
ph2

B- Rf8, Kh1,
ph5

White
does not have to retreat his king but can draw with
67.g4 h4 68.g5 h3 69.Kg4 h2 70.g6 Kg2 71.Bxh2
Kxh2 72.Kg5.

Is
the position reached after 54..h5
really a draw? No! It turns out Black made a mistake by
moving his rook away from the g-file (allowing the
possibility of g4) before his king reached f1.
Substitute 66...Kg1! (for
66...Rf8?) and the win can be had after
67. Be3+ Kf1 68. Bf4 Ra8 (the rook
activates itself but in such a way that g4 is not
possible) 69.Be3 (threatening g4)
69...Rf8+ (only now when the Black king
is on f1 freeing the way for h-pawn in the event of g4)
70.Bf4 Rf7 (zugzwang)
71.g4 (71. Ke4 Kg2) 71...h4
72.g5 h3 73.g6 (73.Kg3 Rxf4 74.Kxh3 Kf2)
73...h2 74.gxf7 h1 (Q) 75. Ke3 Qg1+ 76. Kf3
Qg7 wins.

This
six piece endgame has been worked out by computers. One
wonders if Bobby ever consulted Nalimov's child and if
so what he thought of it. Fischer Random Chess is all
about forcing players to think from move one to avoid
computer preparation in the opening but here the silicon
oracle is working from another direction. One wonders,
would Fischer have loved the possibility to learn the
absolute truth or been horrified by computers creeping
deeper into his beloved game.